hookin up electric guitar to computer

[Alex]

i don't really have the cash to shell out for a super-expensive piece of hardware or anything but i read somewhere that you can use a soundblaster audigy with the optional weird gadget thing and it's not half bad... i currently have an audigy OEM (1st gen) so upgrading to an audigy 2 or later sometime in the near future might be in my plans... are there any other cheaper or better (for whatever reason) alternatives??

thx!

 

[ribbon13]

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: ribbon13

i actually tried one of those but the sound quality was crap and it didn't work half the time!

 

[ribbon13]

Guitars need tubes IMHO. Maybe a tube preamp?

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Guitars need tubes IMHO. Maybe a tube preamp?

meh... maybe ill just buy an audigy2 zs!

 

[asm0deus]

get the guitarport, it makes almost everything else look weak

 

[GuitarDaddy]

If you just want to play around plugging the 1/4 guitar cord directly into an Audigy card or the Guitar Port listed above is ok(with the Audigy you need the one with the front panel), the sound quality is nothing to write home about.

For better sound quality, guitar-->amp-->di box-->soundcard

If you want anything near professional quality recording you need some serious hardware and software ($1500-$5000 worth). If your interested in getting this serious let me know and I'll post some links

 

[whattaguy]

Do you have a guitar amp already?

If you do, the cheapest route that won't need any upgrading for a long time would be to buy a microphone like an SM57 or a Sennheiser e835. Both can easily be found for less than $50 on ebay and are quite durable.

Then, you're going to need a preamp like an M-Audio Audio Buddy which can also be found for about $50, or you can get something cheap like a Behringer UB502 that can be found for about $20 on ebay.

Connect the "outs" of the pre-amp/mixer to the "line-in" of your Audigy with the proper cable converters, and you're good to go.

There are also some good freeware multi-track programs that you can download. One that comes to mind is Krystal Audio.

Basically, you can get really good sound for less than $100.

Good luck.